The manufacture of an aircraft requires, depending on the part being made, multiple, particularly technical competencies and means. Also, the manufacture of an aircraft is usually carried out in a sequential manner, at different construction sites which can be several thousand kilometers apart. The wings may be built at one given site, while only the fuselage sections, etc., are made at another site. The final step of assembling all these aircraft parts requires that they are all brought together at the same assembly site. It is therefore necessary to transport these various parts of the aircraft, after their manufacture, to the assembly site.
For a number of years, the transporting of these aircraft parts by shipping routes, road or railways, has been abandoned in favor of air transportation. In order to do this, super-transporter aircraft have been developed. A particularly known super-transporter aircraft is derived from the AIRBUS A300-600R aircraft. A cargo hold of such a super-transporter aircraft has a diameter of about 7.4 meters and a length of about 37.7 meters, permitting the transport of a load in excess of 45 tons. A cargo hold is understood herein to mean a cargo zone within the super-transporter aircraft, in which the part of the secondary aircraft to be transported is stowed.
One disadvantage of such a super-transporter aircraft is its empty weight. The empty weight is herein understood to mean the weight of the super-transporter aircraft when the cargo hold is not carrying freight. The empty weight, therefore, represents the intrinsic weight of the super-transporter aircraft.
The super-transporter aircraft has a heavy empty weight particularly due to the quantity of materials required for its construction. The weight of the part destined for transportation can attain several dozen tons. The weight of the transported part is, therefore, added to the empty weight of the super-transporter aircraft. A total weight, super-transporter aircraft plus cargo, can therefore reach several hundreds of tons. The super-transporter aircraft uses a large amount of fuel during the transportation of the secondary aircraft part.
Therefore, cost of transporting secondary aircraft parts by air is significant.
Moreover, the super-transporter aircraft does not have a large flying range. When it needs to travel long distances, the super-transporter aircraft often needs to make at least one stop-over for refueling.